Argentine bakers are flaky in the best way

Ohh La La’s maple croissants (not shown) are a fine blend of French technique and Canadian sweetness. To get the full effect, Sebastian Judkovski recommends serving them à la mode. “Cut the croissants into pieces, warm them in a
350 F oven for four to five minutes, drop a scoop of vanilla ice cream on them and open the doors of heaven.” Lorraine Hjalte / Calgary Herald / Swerve

Sebastian Judkovski and his wife, Yanina Rabinovich, run Ohh La La Patisserie. Both hail from Buenos Aires, the home of the dense, sweetened-milk confection that is more popular than chocolate. So it would only be natural to find it layered into a cake or perhaps baked into a pudding or at least sandwiched into a dulce de leche macaron.

But when Judkovski has baked dulce de leche pastries they haven’t sold well. So he’s set them aside for now. Instead, he’s picked up a fondness for maple syrup and the wonders it can do for pastries. One night, when he was deeply tired, he dreamed he was eating maple syrup by the spoonful. That dream served as inspiration—”why not a croissant?”—and, after a month of experimentation, the maple croissant, one of his biggest sellers, was born.

The maple croissant seems appropriate for the immigrant baker and his wife, who have put everything into their new homeland. “We came to Canada because it’s a beautiful country, and the economy and safety are so much better than in Argentina,” says Rabinovich. They lasted one winter in Winnipeg before shifting to Calgary in 2004.

Judkovski, who has both chef’s and pastry chef’s papers, worked in various restaurants and catering kitchens around town. Then, in 2012, he and Rabinovich invested everything they had (plus some money from family in Argentina) and opened their pastry shop in the burgeoning West Springs area. They immediately found fans for their delicate macarons, their beautifully decorated cakes and their flaky croissants (168 layers, to be precise), if not their dulce de leche.

And we had to ask the other question: “How do people named Judkovski and Rabinovich end up in Argentina?”

Both of Judkovski’s grandparents lived in the same neighbourhood in Poland and left after the First World War. But even though they sailed on the same ship, his grandparents only met two years later when mutual friends introduced them in Buenos Aires. Meanwhile Rabinovich’s grandparents, also Polish, settled in Uruguay. Many years later Judkovski and Rabinovich met through a relative; on their second date Judkovski told Rabinovich they would be married one day.

“I thought he was crazy,” Rabinovich says, laughing at the memory. She adds that a year before she met him, a Ouija board predicted she would marry someone named Sebastian. Seven years later, she married this Sebastian and they now have two daughters, Avril and Emma.

And now it’s time for a new venture at Ohh La La. They’ve added high-end baking for those seeking gluten-, nut-, dairy- or egg-free items (orders need to be placed 48 hours in advance). They’ve seen a gap in the market for high-end baking like this, baking that can fit with specialized diets.

And what of the national dessert? “Being Argentinians, dulce de leche is in our veins,” Judkovski says. He adds that a dulce de leche macaron is in the near future. He’s starting small, but he’s convinced Canadians will come around.

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